Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Equality Act 2010 to enable Scottish Courts to take protective measures to ensure that claimants in discrimination employment tribunals receive payments where they are due, including statutory powers to arrest funds.

Civil enforcement is a devolved matter and the powers of Scottish Courts in this respect are therefore a matter for the Scottish Government.

However, the Government is clear that where an employment tribunal has made an award then it should be paid promptly. That is why BEIS introduced the UK-wide unpaid award penalty scheme, in addition to other existing enforcement action, to improve award payment rates. Since introduction in April 2016, the unpaid award penalty scheme has levied penalties of £485,646 and secured payment of £829,343 of previously unpaid employment tribunal awards as of January 2018.

The Government also committed to further reforms to enforcement, including unpaid awards, following the Matthew Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices and will update on progress on those reforms in due course.